Reviewed
by:Jeff
Matthews, send
e-mailPublished
by:Xara, go
to the web siteRequires: Windows
95/98/2000/Me/XP/NT4, Pentium MX or better, 64MB Ram. Some
features may not work without Internet Explorer 5.5 or
laterMSRP: $19.00

Xara's
newest addition to its line of products is Xara
MenuMaker. A user can now create stunning menus
to add to his site without having any graphic
design skills. Xara MenuMaker includes ready-made,
eye catching Menus. These Menus can be edited
to include the text you want for each section.
No programming skills are necessary to use this
program. This program automatically creates the
Dynamic HTML (DHTML) and javascript required
for these types of menus, making it a no-brainer
for you.

The
product comes with 250 top-quality graphical navbar
designs. These are easily customizable. You can
type the text into the fields and see them updated
right away. If you use either Macromedia Dreamweaver
or Microsoft Frontpage then Xara MenuMaker can
integrate seemlessly so you can add Menus directly
inside these editors. I've always been a fan of
Xara's since Xara released Webstyle 1.0 which lets
you create banners, buttons and more.

Pros: Not expensive. If you had an in house designer do
the menus for you, any project would be much more costly,
running as much as a few hundred dollars per menu. Xara's
professional designers created the menu content in the software
and are providing them to you for much less. The program
automatically creates the code.

At only
$19.00 this piece of software is a bargain. It shouldn't
get too
confusing because there is no programming involved.
As quoted from the Xara site, "Menu Maker makes it so
easy to add your NavBars to your web page - even your granny
could do it." If you would like another product that
will create buttons and banners as well, then try Xara's
Webstyle 3.0*. Both of these products may be purchased online
at the Xara web site. If you would like to evaluate the software
before purchasing then you should know that Xara provides
a 15 day free trial of this product.

* (Ed. Note: Menu Maker only allows you to create graphical
navigation bars and DHTML menus. Webstyle has many more features
and lets you create a number of different graphic types,
such as 2D and 3D headings, buttons, banner ads, dividers
and bullets - as well as graphical NavBars and DHTML menus.)